Subject: Re: May-August is dull. ???
Date: Jun 2 12:01:23 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


Joe Morlan wrote: "Listers also go to see stake-outs to add to their list.
I've written on this before, but it's been several years, so I'll go over
it one more time. There is value to seeing birds you have not seen before.
That value is the experience you gain from seeing the bird in real-life."

Much of what you wrote about listers contributing to ornithology is of
course true, Joe, and must be acknowledged by anyone, no matter what their
view toward listing. But I must comment on the quote above. I couldn't
agree more with you about the value of seeing birds you have not seen
before. A life bird is a thrilling thing to me, an encounter with one of
nature's products molded by the evolutionary process in a different way
than any other entity. It's a cosmic experience for both left and right
brain, leaves me with a feeling not quite the same as from any other
experience. But can you tell me the real value to either the listers or
the rest of the world in driving all the way across a state to see an
individual bird (to add to their state list, of course) of a species they
may have seen again and again and again in the next state or a few years
earlier when they lived across the country? What does this add besides a
check in a box? I wonder what would motivate someone who grew up with
Cardinals and sees them regularly on visits back home to drive all the way
across Washington to see one that appeared at a feeder. This is the sort
of phenomenon that gives Byron an unending forum for his comments, it seems
to me.

As has been repeatedly pointed out, the act of listing in itself is beyond
criticism, but the emphasis on it as a primary *goal* in birding is selling
short those wonderful birds that make birding possible.

And all of you transplanted easterners with clearly defined motives for
taking off after that Cardinal across the state, please share them with the
rest of us. Sorry, Peter and Michael and all of you tweeters, it was in a
weak moment when I called for a personal response!

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416